Mungrisdale Common from Scales

Date: 05-Oct-2010

Map: Landranger 90

Weather: Mixed showers and sunshine.

From Scales ascend behind Scales Farm up
to the top of Mousthwaite Comb. Head up to Sharp Edge and on
to Blencathra. Down to Atkinson Pike and out to Mungrisdale
Common. Return to Bowscale Fell, and on to Bannerdale Crags.
Drop down to Bannerdale and around to walk up Souther Fell.
Return via Mousthwaite Comb to Scales :
12.2 miles as measured on memory map.

I'd
arranged to meet up with the chuckle brothers (Ian and Micky)
who had been camping up at Chapel Stile the night before, at
Scales - for an assault (verbal) on Mungrisdale Common. - we
could barely contain our excitement as we planned this one.
I got to the White Horse at Scales on time and found a
parking space. As I was getting booted up, I received a text
from Ian saying they were a little delayed. I was quite
pleased really as I hadn't done any real walking for about 6
weeks, so I could set off at a gentle pace. Always in the
Lake District steep sided hills awaited my arrival, and
Blencathra is always intimidating - it rises straight up,
unrelenting in it's steepness. I went west out of Scales
village for a hundred yards or so to pick up a path that
runs a little easier up to Scales Fell. I took it easy as
I'm badly out of shape, and it's not taken long to pile on
the pounds when inactive - my fault, I've been too lazy. I
had good views down to the A66 below and over to Little and
Great Mell Fells. The tops looked clear, but there was
plenty of the grey stuff lurking over to the west - I could
see our first objective of Sharp Edge as I reached the col
above Mousthwaite Comb. Below me on the steep path up from
Scales I could see Micky and Pearsy coming up the
alternative route from Scales, so I wandered down to meet
them at the top of the path. While I waited I had a good
look over at Souther Fell and Bannerdale Crags which we
would visit later on.

a gentle start to the day for me as I climb slowly
up to Scales Fell

looking down on Mous

thwaite Comb

Great Mell Fell, with the main road down below

looking up towards Sharp Edge

Sharp Edge with Scales Tarn below

Atkinson Pike with Skiddaw in the
background and the Derwent Fells in the distance

The path up to Scales Tarn and Sharp
Edge is a fairly steady ascent and doesn't get steeper until
just before the tarn. I took time to look back towards the
start of the long valley, which is typically rough grazing
land and in stark contrast to what lay ahead. As we reached
the tarn the rain started to persist it down, so away went
the big camera, as I wasn't about to lug that up and over
Sharp Edge in those conditions. It wasn't heavy rain and we
didn't even discuss our options ahead - left to Scales Fell or ahead to Sharp Edge, and at least the cloud was above the summit up above. From Scales Tarn the path climbs steeply up a scree path to the bottom of Sharp Edge, where there are numerous options to tackle the ridge,
and these narrow down to one route over the crest a little further on. Up on the edge itself all thoughts of tiredness went out of the window, as the wind and rain picked up. It was a little greasy and very slippery in places and we had to use plenty of contact to progress. There is only one really awkward spot where the rock tilts away to the valley below, and you have to duck under a small overhang and try to get a grip. We were soon past the edge and onto Foule Crag which in these conditions was worse than Sharp Edge. Ian veered to the left and Micky to the right, and I chose the gully route which turned out the best way forward. As I emerged higher up the slope the other two had to re-route a little bit, but we all got to the top in one piece, very relieved to be in one piece. We took a steady wander up to Blencathra summit, but we didn't have much of a view.

Mungrisdale Common in all it's glory

a convenient quad bike track led us across to the
'summit' (I use the term loosely)

x marks the spot - the Derwent Fells framed by
Skiddaw

next along is Bowscale Fell

another splodge

the view back to the common with Skiddaw behind

down from Bowscale to Bannerdale Crags

After consulting maps and Satmap, we walked back down to Foule Crag and then set course for one of Alfred's enigmas - Mungrisdale Common. Many have wondered why he nominated this place - it's a bog trot across from Foule Crag. It's an unexceptional piece of landscape - a broad mound between Blencathra, Skiddaw and the Northern Fells - the Cumbria Way runs down in the valley beneath here. But at least the sun was shining and the summit (I use the term loosely) cairn is better than the 4 stones it was. I looked around for inspiration, but could only think that Alf had chosen it for the views over
towards the Derwent Fells and the back of Skiddaw - you could say what a Great Cockup, but you can't as Great Calva is in the way (you'll have to look at a map to figure that one out). After the usual snaps and trying to make it look good, we plotted a course over to Bowscale Fell, to tick off another Wainwright - 5 on today's route. After checking
the compass for the right path we set off for more bog trotting across the flanks of Mungrisdale as we contoured around to the cairn on Bowscale Fell. Micky and Pearsy were going to walk over to Lonscale Fell, but decided to keep me honest by accompanying me around the fells.
It was fairly easy going, but boggy ground does sap the
energy with constantly looking for a good stride. My boots
have finally given up the ghost and leaked quite badly - but at least my new gardening boots will be comfy. We were soon up on Bowscale Fell, with views from there up to Blencathra and back to the mongrel with Skiddaw beyond. It's a non descript summit and the views up this end of the hill were very similar as before - I'm not a great lover of the northern fells, they're not very sexy really (apart from Sharp Edge-phwoar). But I haven't done some of the northern fells so I can't be a good judge of them yet.

the
summit of Bannerdale Crags

looking back to Skiddaw once more

our next fell is in the foreground, but it was down
and up again

Bannerdale - bootiful

Pearsy about to plummet over the edge

B

annerdale Crags
summit

Looking back down the summit ridge we could see our path veering off around the contours towards Bannerdale Crags. It was similar ground as before and skirted around the head of Bannerdale - a really wide U-shaped valley, with most of the morraine on the northern side. The drops off Bannerdale Crags are impressively steep over the edge, and when we got up on the summit we discussed the way around to Souther Fell. The simple way was to cut back along the path we had already walked - butPearsy must have been to the same kamikaze mountain decent school as Cogstar - i.e straight off the edge. He spotted a scree slope down and shouted 'over here' - and that was that, down we plummetted on loose rocky scree at a jaunty angle. Agony for my knees but quite good fun as well - this took us down over some old mine workings / spoil heaps and finally out onto sheep pasture again. Then it was a simple hack down through the ferns to emerge down in the valley at Bannerdale Beck - me being the slow one of the party I just followed the tracks the others made. Once on the main path along the River Glendoramackin, it was nice and grassy, and led back up the valley to a bridge over the river. The usual steady ascent followed, with me trailing at the back - too many pictures taken instead of trying to keep up.
More bog trotting along moist tracks took us up to our last Wainwright of the day at Souther Fell, where we stopped and admired the views back to Blencathra, and Micky and Pearsy waited patiently. They looked big against the sun, Blencathra and Sharp Edge. A pleasant stroll then took us back down the slopes the way we had come, diverting off to the left to walk down Mousethwaite Comb. The valley below Blencathra was illuminated by shafts of sunlight, a great end to the day as we dropped down a steep stoney path to the minor road above Scales. A short walk later we were warming by the fire supping a fine pint of Sharp Edge bitter - brewed in Hartlepool of all places - it was a fine pint in fine company.....again.

the head of Bannerdale

steeper than it looks was our route down the scree

the path which took us back around the base of
Bannerdale Crags to croos over the beck

the path up from the beck on the way to Souther
Fell - looking back to Sharp Edge again

Saddleback - Blencathra

the plod up to Souther Fell

the summit of Souther Fell, with Bannerdale Crags
in front of Blencathra